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The Groundhogs play the clubs and pubs mid 80s
From 1985 onward the Groundhogs toured relentlessly, visiting the North East of England many many times. I caught quite a few Hogs gigs during this period, and they played that often that I must admit, there were gigs that I missed out on, simply because I had already seen them so many times that year. The line-up changed several times, and I couldn’t pretend to keep track of it. For some gigs, there would be a second guitarist alongside Tony. The line-up of Alan Fish (bass) and Mick Kirton (drums) played with Tony until 1989, and I saw this line-up several times during that period. Dave Anderson became a regular on bass from 2001 onward, and Mick Jones took the drumstool on a several occasions from 1989. I also definitely remember seeing Eric Chipulina (who had great dreadlocks) on bass and second guitar a few times, and Pete Correa on drums on several occasions. The one constant was of course Tony T S McPhee. The Groundhogs released a couple of albums of new material during this period: Razor’s Edge (1985); and Back Against the Wall (in 1987). And pretty good they were too. I still have a copy of Razor’s Edge (note  to myself, I must get a copy of Back Against the Wall). A live album No Surrender – Razors Edge Tour 1985, was released in the 1990s, and shows the set at the time as being: Razor’s Edge, Baby Have I Done This Wrong; I Want You To Love Me; Light My Light; Superceded; Garden; Split Part One; Groundhog Blues; Cherry Red. I also remember a track One More Chance, from Razor’s Edge, which was a live favourite at the time. Eccentric Man, Soldier, and Ship On The Ocean would also often feature in the set.
The Hogs played some strange venues in the mid to late 80s including a spell playing working men’s clubs. I saw a few of these club gigs, with my mates Dave or Will at South Hetton Club, Wheatley Hill Club, and Blackhall Club. There were other club gigs that I missed including Newbottle Club and Sheildfield Club. These were almost surreal events. They were usually on a weekend, and the audience consisted of club regulars who were there for their Saturday or Sunday night out, and a smattering of rock fans. The club regulars (husband and wife couples in their 50s, 60s and 70s) were used to cabaret type bands playing the hits of the day, and just didn’t know what to make of the Groundhogs. At South Hetton Club the Groundhogs appeared in the upstairs concert room, playing two sets to allow for the regular bingo between the sets (I kid you not). The place was full or regulars who couldn’t understand what was happening. I remember comments such as “Too Loud. I’m going to complain to the committee” and “What is this Rubbish; they should be paid off” from old guys who were totally phased by it. The Groundhogs just played their normal set, and those of us in the audience who were rock fans loved it. Why wouldn’t we. We had an opportunity to sit, having a drink, watching our hero perform in an intimate setting. And we could play bingo in the interval (don’t think we won)! At Blackhall Club the place went wild, I remember it being much more full of rock fans, and everyone standing on tables, clapping and stomping along as Tony played an extended Groundhog Blues. Wheatley Hill Club was also a good gig, on a Sunday night I think, with a sold out hall (which we managed to blag our way into as I knew the promoter).
The ticket above is for a gig at a nightclub called Top Cats, which was somewhere in Newcastle (Benton I think); I remember the Hogs came on very late, after midnight and played until 2am. Around the same period (1985 to mid 90s) I also saw the Groundhogs play at Sunderland Ropery, Sunderland Kasbah (I think this may have been Tony solo), somewhere in Hartlepool (a group of us went to a packed venue which was, I think, an old church and was possibly called The Studio?), a pub in Darlington (a car load of us went on a Friday night and I can’t remember the name of the pub at all). I recall going to a gig a Billingham Swan, but I think the Hogs didn’t play for some reason. There were other gigs I attended around this time at Sunderland Old 29, Washington Arts Centre, and Bowes Wine Cellar in Darlington, which I will blog on separately over the next few days. I am sure that there were other gigs which I have forgotten.

Tony McPhee’s Terraplane late 70s
After the Groundhogs disbanded in 1976 Tony McPhee formed a new band called Terraplane, featuring Alan Fish on bass, and Wilgar Campbell (ex Rory Gallagher) on drums. This band gigged quite a bit, but didn’t release any new material. Two tracks (Down in the Bottom and Shake for Me) were taped as demos in 1977; and are the only recordings of Terraplane apart from some backing tracks for Billy Boy Arnold on an album called Checkin` It Out. Down in the Bottom is an old Howlin’ Wolf song which often features as the encore in the current Groundhogs set. I saw Terraplane twice, once at Sunderland Locarno, and again at an open air concert in Gypsie’s Green Stadium South Shields.
The thing I remember most about the South Shields gig was not the music. I’d just bought a really cool pair of black Denson Chelsea boots. These were old stock winklepickers from the 60s, which you could pick up cheap in shoe sales in the late 70s (which I’d bought them all up 🙂 ). This would place the gig around 1977 or 1978, I would think. I went along to the gig with a couple of mates, and we decided to take a short cut into the stadium over the back fence. The points of my winklepickers got stuck between the bars of the fence as I climbed over, and I fell forward to the great joy of my mates. My boots remained stuck in the fence, and I landed on the ground in front. The boots were badly scraped and all but ruined 😦 , and I felt rather stupid for the rest of the day. My memory tells me that the set was all new songs, and although I enjoyed seeing Tony and he played guitar as well as ever, the material was unfamiliar and I missed the old Groundhogs favourites. I seem to remember that Cherry Red featured as an encore.
By the early 80s Tony was fronting a band called simply the Tony McPhee band, who I never saw, although one of my mates did go to see them at Middlesbrough Rock Garden and came back with good reports of the gig. Tony’s autograph above was obtained at a later 80s gig, but I’ve included it here as I didn’t have any Terraplane material. The Tony McPhee band released one single: Time of Action, which was a limited edition pressing of 1,000, and is available from the Grondhogs official website. I’ll move onto the next chapter in my Groundhogs history tomorrow.

The Groundhogs Newcastle City Hall 1973 and other gigs in 1974
The Groundhogs called at Newcastle City Hall twice in 1974. The first of these two gigs featured Ellis (with Steve Ellis) and Spyda as support acts. For the second gig, the support was a band called Jonesy. Ellis featured Zoot Money, ex-Peter Bardens guitarist Andy Gee; ex-Fat Mattress bassist Jimmy Leverton (later replaced by Nick South); and drummer Dave Lutton. Jonesy featured Alan Bown on horns. The Groundhogs were at the peak of their success at this time, selling concert halls out up and down the country. They had just released the album Hogwash (1972), which was followed by Solid in 1974, and the set at the time featured the classics (Split I and II, Cherry Red, Garden, Mistreated, Groundhogs Blues, Eccentric Man) and sometimes tracks like Strange Town, Soldier and Ship on the Oceon, along with newer songs such as I Love You Miss Ogyny, 3744 James Road, and Light My Light. Free from all Alarm, and Sins of the Father were also sometimes featured in the set. The Groundhogs released two singles around this time: Sad Go Round and Plea Sing Plea Song. Tony was particularly busy during this period of his career, and took the time to record a solo lp, the Two Sides of Tong (TS) McPhee. He did a short tour in September 1973 to support the album, but didn’t play in the North East, so sadly I missed it. These gigs were the last time the Groundhogs were to play large concert hall tours, although they continued to gig constantly until the band split in 1974. The line up throughout this period was Tony, Pete Cruikshank and Clive Brooks. I saw them a few other times: twice at the Mayfair (once in 1973 and again in 1974; I recall the band Back Door being the support act on one of these occasions), once at Sunderland Locarno, and once at Spennymoor Top Hat Club. There may have been other gigs that I attended, the band certainly toured a lot at this time. Tony decided to split the band during 1974, but they were to reappear in a different form in the following year. I’ll blog on that line-up tomorrow. Many thanks to John for the scan of the great poster.
I found a setlist which is listed as being from a gig at Glasgow Greens Playhouse (later to become the Apollo) during the November 1973 tour: Ship on the Ocean; Light My Light; I Love You Misogyny; Earth Shanty; Sad Go Round; Dog Me bitch; Split 1; Joker’s Grave; Train Train; Lawdie Miss Clawdie; Soldier; Split 4; Split 2; Sad Go Round. I can’t ever remember the Groundhogs playing old tunes like Lawdie Miss Clawdie, but then my memory is not so good these days…….

The Groundhogs Stray & Gentle Giant Newcastle City Hall 1972
A group of us went to this gig, and we had seats right down the front. The line-up was very strong, with support from the amazing Stray and prog-rock heroes Gentle Giant. Gentle Giant were first up. This group grew out of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, and are now looked upon as a legendary band. At the time, however, it all seemed just a little too weird for our simple rock tastes. Stray were favourites of mine at the time and were just great, with Del wearing his mirror suit, lots of strobe lights during All In Your Mind, and the exploding dustbins to close the show. My favourite Stray song at the time was Jericho, from the Suicide album. This was the Groundhogs first tour with new drummer Clive Brooks, and took place between the release of Who Will Save The World and the Hogwash albums. The set would have consisted of classics from Thank Christ For the Bomb, Split, and Mistreated from Blues Obituary. I suspetc that they may also have played some songs from Hogwash. I Love Miss Ogyny and 3744 James Road were to become great live favourites of the next couple of years. The programme tells me: “The playing of the Groundhogs as a group, and of Tony McPhee as a soloist goes from strength to strength. On Who Will Save The World Mac adds mellotron and harmonium to his electrifying guitar, and because of what seems to be essentially a guitarist’s approach to these instruments he adds a new dimension to their usage. The Mighty Groundhogs, now with super-Mac on sythesiser and mellotron as well as his whining, wheeling guitar are very heavy, very heavy indeed”.

The Groundhogs early 70s gigs: the classic line-up
This is going to be a bit of a marathon, so please indulge me on this. If there is one band that I have followed consistently over the past 40+ years, it is The Groundhogs. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen them, and hope that collecting my memories in the form of posts on my blog, will help me recall some of the great times I have had at Groundhogs gigs. I intend to blog about this great band over the Christmas period, and its going to take me quite a few days (perhaps a couple of weeks!) to cover all the different line-ups of the band that I have seen, since I first caught them in concert in the early 70s. I’ll also cover the legend that is Tony McPhee as a solo artist during my bloggings.
The first time I saw The Groundhogs was at Newcastle City Hall in February 1971, when they were support act for The Rolling Stones. I’ve blogged separately on this gig from a Stones perspective, but I need to concentrate on my memories of Tony and the guys here. This was, of course, the classic power trio line-up of McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass, and Ken Pustelnik on drums. I didn’t know who was supporting the Stones until I got into the hall, and they introduced them as they came on stage. So it was a nice surprise to find out I was about to witness my first Groundhogs gig. This was just around the time that they released Split, and their (very short) set comprised a few songs from that and Thank Christ for the Bomb. The Groundhogs set was particularly short that night, as there were two performances of the Rolling Stones show, the first being from 6.30 to 8.30pm, which didn’t allow the support act to play for much more than half an hour. The Leeds University gig of the tour was recorded and released as the Live At Leeds EP, which shows the set as being: Cherry Red; Garden; Split Part One; Groundhogs Blues; and Eccentric Man. That night I became a lifelong Groundhogs fan. Their music was a unique mix of blues and rock, and they were truly at the height of their powers at the time. I saw this original classic line-up four more times over the next year or so; at Newcastle City Hall, Sunderland Bay Hotel, Newcastle Mayfair, and Sunderland Top Rank.
The City Hall gig was during 1971 and was a co-headlining show with Chicken Shack. Things didn’t go entirely to plan and for some reason The Groundhogs weren’t able to appear that night, so Chicken Shack headlined the gig, and very good they were too. The gig was promoted by local guy Geoff Docherty, who came on stage to apologise and tell us The Groundhogs would play a couple of weeks later. This was one of those gigs where you handed your tickets in at the door, so they gave them back to us as we left, so that we could use them at the rescheduled gig. One of my mates was quite enterprising and kept going in and out of the hall, and thus managed to collect a few extra tickets, which he sold on to people at school. So a couple of weeks later we returned to the City Hall, and as promised The Groundhogs did indeed play for us. I also remember that Bridget St John was support at one of those two gigs; I think it was the first night when Chicken Shack played. I remember someone threw a can, just missing her, and Geoff Docherty came on to the stage to tell the crowd to calm down. At the time The Groundhogs would start with Mistreated (from Blues Obituary), and then play a selection of tracks from their first few albums including Eccentric Man, Still a Fool (from the first album, Scratching the Surface), Split I, Garden, and Groundhog Blues. They would finish with Split II with a marathon solo by Tony and lots of use of the whammy bar, and return for an encore of Cherry Red. Tony was quite rightly rated as one of the best guitarists in the country at the time, and his guitar playing was stunning and a joy to experience.
A group of us went to see The Groundhogs play at Sunderland Bay Hotel sometime late in 1971. I decided to go at the last minute, missing a gig by Rory Gallagher at the City Hall so that I could see the Hogs with my mates. The place was packed and Tony was on top form; I remember this as one of the best times I ever saw the band.
In early 1972, I was at Newcastle Mayfair to see The Groundhogs and Chicken Shack share a bill again, at a dance for Ashington College students. Both bands did play this time, alongside a couple of other bands, as I recall. Chicken Shack were on top form with Stan walking around the dance floor playing his guitar, using an extra long lead. The Groundhogs had just released the Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs album, and played a couple of tracks from the new lp: Earth is not Room Enough, and Music is the Food of Thought. I think this is the only time I’ve ever seen them play those tracks. Tony was also getting into some serious soloing at this point, playing a very Hendrix-ish version of Amazing Grace.
Around the same time, in early 1972, a group of us saw The Groundhogs at Sunderland Top Rank. We’d been to see Slade (who were excellent) at Sunderland Locarno earlier that night, and came into the Rink (as it was known) just as The Groundhogs took to the stage, having missed the support act Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. I managed to make my way right to the front, and stood right in front of Tony as he soloed on Amazing Grace and Split II. We also got back stage that night and chatted to Tony and Pete.
Its amazing how many times The Groundhogs played in the north east within the space of a year. In fact there were more gigs then these, including a concert at the City Hall where they were supported by Egg and Quicksand (see flyer), which I missed (and I still regret it!). Ken Pustelnik was soon to leave the band, to be replaced by Clive Brooks, and that version of the band toured extensively over the next couple of years, calling at the City Hall a few times. I’ll blog on those gigs in the coming days.